you know, it was clapper who said to david petraeus, look, bro, you got to go after his affair. it's pretty hard to imagine jim clapper saying something similar to john brennan, who has been sitting with the president in the oval office day after day, directing drone strikes, also working on cyber issues which are very important both to the president and to john brennan. it's really hard to imagine that. so i think john brennan may keep a lot of his bureaucratic power, but have the entire cia behind him too. and that makes him an extremely important player. >> it makes it such a double sided endorsement. pick john brennan because he is so close to the president, he'll be incredibly effective as a director. also, if you want the cia to be even more powerful than it, is this is the guy who is going to bring presidential power even to that agency. >> yep. >> fascinating stuff. noah schactman editor of danger room, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> appreciate it. >>> from the brass section, from the brass section, it's not each a metaphor for the military. the actua